OCLC and ProQuest collaborate to enhance library discovery

ProQuest and OCLC are launching a far-reaching data exchange program that will enhance the library discovery experience for users of OCLC's WorldCat Local service, ProQuest's Summon® service, the full-text of ProQuest Central and ebrary e-books. The program shares metadata across some of the world's most-widely used library resources, enriching the discoverability and comprehensiveness of all the services.

Once the data exchange is completed, libraries that subscribe to both WorldCat Local and ProQuest Central or that own any ebrary content will be able to discover ProQuest records and access associated content through the WorldCat Local interface. Further, the exchange will enhance the discoverability of catalog records in the Summon service, creating the potential for libraries to view other institutions' WorldCat holdings information within the Summon experience.

"This collaboration improves the user experience by streamlining the research process and improving search comprehensiveness," said Kurt Sanford, ProQuest CEO. "The information world becomes more complex every day and we feel that user innovations will require cooperation among library service providers. We're delighted to work with OCLC to make this happen."

"OCLC member libraries continue to be well served by our long-standing partnership with ProQuest," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "We are pleased to extend additional value via this new data exchange agreement. Now OCLC member libraries will have deeper access to their ProQuest services through WorldCat Local and those who select Summon will enjoy direct access to WorldCat and OCLC Resource Sharing. Both discovery and delivery for library users will be markedly enhanced."

ProQuest Central is the largest, multidisciplinary, full-text database available in the market today. This resource provides access to 27 of ProQuest's most highly used databases, with a variety of content types across over 160 subjects, making this the broadest single research resource in the world.

WorldCat is the world's largest database of bibliographic information built continuously by OCLC and libraries around the world since 1971. Each record in the WorldCat database contains a bibliographic description of a single item or work and a list of institutions that hold the item. Institutions share these records, using them to create local catalogs, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work. Since 1971, more than 280 million records have been added to WorldCat, spanning more than 6,000 years of recorded knowledge.